Thursday, May 21, 2015

The
man most famously known as the morning guy on KLOS (95.5 FM)
from 1979 to 1984 in many ways changed rock radio forever. And
he did it through his comedy born out of his standup routines
perfected before he even landed in Los Angeles back in 1976,
when he worked as part of a weekend program called “The
Hollywood Nightshift.”

That
program, which ran until 1979, starred the Fraze, Phil Austin,
and Michael C. Gwynne doing improvisational comedy based upon
a topic that was supposedly chosen spontaneously.

At
KLOS he took a station known more for being the dull,
corporate alternative to competitor KMET (now KTWV, 94.7 FM)
and made it hip. Eschewing tradition, Smith talked. A lot. And
he had lots of ongoing bits that were unusual for album rock
radio at the time, which generally focussed on the music
itself.

Of
course this was not new to radio; many in the past had done it
prior to the arrival of Smith; Lohman and Barkley on KFI (640
AM) being just one example. But they tended to appeal to an
older generation, while Smith did it for high school and
college-aged kids who ate up his party animal aura and “too
hip” image.

Smith
left KLOS for KMET in 1984, moved to KLSX (now KAMP, 97.1 FM)
when the Mighty Met became The Wave in 1986, and moved back to
KLOS for a year in 1987. He even did a little work on KRTH
(101.1 FM) in 2002, and was part of both (relatively) recent
KMET reunions on The Sound (100.3 FM).

But
... did you know he’s still on the air? At KLOS, no less,
Sunday nights from 10 p.m. to 12 midnight. And it’s not a
rehash of what he did years ago ... Fraze is still “too hip,”
but the content is current. Too Hip News last Sunday poked fun
at Tom Brady ...

using wording that was quite funny and,
unfortunately, not able to be printed here.

Rodney
on the Roq

There’s
something comforting about the idea that Rodney Bingenheimer
is still on the air, even if the legendary DJ is stuck in the
awful Monday morning 12 midnight to 3 a.m. slot on the station
he helped put on the map: KROQ.

During
the station’s glory days of the 1980s and 1990s, Rodney on the
Roq was found much earlier ... Sunday’s before midnight at
least.

But
he still plays an eclectic set of songs -- it is said he is
and has been the last DJ in town to have full control over
what he plays. Recent songs ran the gamut from the Summer
Cannibals “Don’t Make Me Beg” to the Beatles “Your Mother
Should Know.” He even played a Flamin’ Groovies track
recently: “I Can’t Hide.”

Bingenheimer
has always been on the cutting edge of music, and his show
brought a lot of street cred to KROQ in the early days of the
station’s New Wave format. My friend Frank Pereyda was a
weekly listener in those days; I still have an audio recording
Frank made for me circa 1980 when Bingenheimer did a program
featuring songs from the ‘60s psychedelic/garage era ... bands
like Love (My Little Red Book) and The Standells (Dirty Water)
... songs that were not at the time and still are not played
on the radio.

A
shame that Bingenheimer is not heard earlier ... such as when
people are actually awake. But at least he’s still there.
That’s something.